Basics:

Full Name: Janus Lumley
Age: 11
School Year: 1^st
House: Ravenclaw
Wand: 28.8 cm (11.3 in), chestnut wood and phoenix feather core, whippy
Patronus: N/A
Species: Human
Talent: Seer

Appearance:


[faceclaim: Asa Butterfield]

Janus cuts a fairly average figure; he's slightly taller than the mean height for his age but not enough to be noticeable, and he's got a normal lean build, with the typical angular limbs many young boys have. His fair skin is peppered with small moles in some places and he has a clean, squarish face, with a slightly pointed chin. He's let his straight, dark brown hair grow into a longish mop, and sometimes he tries to hide his gaze behind it if he doesn't want to be approached. His eyes are a pale colour, a grey-light blue that resembles the shade of ice. Despite this, he has far from an "icy" stare, his irises giving rather the impression of clear rain puddles. His eyebrows are thick but scarcely haired, giving him soft features that are marked by a pair of rectangular black glasses. Janus doesn't like to wear them and he takes them off when he's not required to see something; unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often. His parents and his friends back home always told him that he looked better with glasses, but he just sees them as an inconvenience and can't wait to learn some magic that will fix his eyes. As for the other things he has to wear, he doesn't care much about trends, preferring to feel comfortable; having to wear a uniform gets him rid of one more thing to think about. The only preference he has on the subject is that he doesn't like to dress up with a lot of bright colours. Though as a rule he doesn't talk much, his slightly low-pitched voice is one of those that always ring crystal clear to bystanders. His Geordie accent is very light (even though he comes from Durham) because his father is a Southerner and, having reinvented himself as an English teacher, he also insisted on teaching his children correct pronunciation.

Personality:



He's not shy but he just doesn't say more than necessary. Sometimes some people make him unusually chatty by talking about a subject he's very curious about, or rub off on him with their excitement. As a rule though, he's more of a quiet observer or a sidekick, and he likes it that way. He doesn't like to draw attention too much - if others don't expect anything from you, you can do more or less what you like. In Janus' case, this usually coincides with not doing things. He likes to be free to fantasize or focus on what is catching his interest in that moment, and he only likes doing something if it's an extension of his curiosity. His mother usually called it "lazying around". His muggle mates called it "being a good marra who doesn't talk much but likes to play". Nobody knew how he managed to get good grades in muggle school. Maybe it's because he's somewhat more relaxed than others, but he thinks it was more down to luck. He always felt lucky, and finding out he's a wizard confirmed it for him. He usually feels comfortable in trusting life, in the sense that he goes with the flow and he doesn't worry around situations he thinks he has even an inch of knowledge about, grabbing onto that sense of security to walk in blind with the rest. He thinks of the world as a treasure waiting to be explored and discovered, and even though he's not ambitious he can become really driven when trying to understand something new, failing to notice the obstacles in his way. He sees the process of learning as becoming more complete, like looking at a picture in a higher resolution, and that in turn makes him feel more confident and relaxed (and excited about learning more). It's not a surprise, then, that being catapulted into the wizarding world on September the 1^st made him feel so insecure, what with all the things he couldn't even begin to process and find a logic in. The beauty and wonder of Hogwarts made up for it but he's still adapting, so he could appear chattier or moodier than his usual stable self for a short time, at least until he doesn't feel as natural here as he was in his former world. When he's angry he folds in on himself, his quietness making him look like a stubborn immovable object. In any case, he's usually pretty accepting of others; his father taught him to be open-minded and Janus is curious by nature - unless his laziness stops him.

Likes:
- Lazying around
- Feeling OK with the world
- Ginger Newts
- Feeling part of collective sensations
- Learning

Dislikes:
- Expectations
- Radishes
- Responsibilities
- Shame
- Having to wear glasses

History (pre-Hogwarts):

Janus Lumley was born at 5 a.m. on the 30^th of a mild and wet January, in Durham. He spent a relatively happy childhood, learning to get out of his shell and befriend schoolmates, with his older sister, Diane, spurring him on. His mother worked at the chemist's around the corner and his father was an English teacher at a different primary school in town. Life went on predictably normal until he was 7; that summer afternoon he was sitting on a chair outside, playing cards with his sister and mother, when a hornet flew over and hovered buzzing right beside his ear. He started and quickly turned around, and the next thing he knew, the hornet was falling to the ground in a small ball of fire. He stood there transfixed with his sister as his mother went running inside to his father and told him that he'd performed magic. From then on, his life became much more unexpected. His father explained to him and his sister that magic was real and even though their mother was a muggle, non-magical, he himself was a wizard, had always been one. To make them believe him, he took out his long-unused wand and performed a simple Wingardium Leviosa. Diane (who at the time was 13) was quick to get angry at him for not telling them earlier, and only later she would understand that he'd done so because he didn't want to unnecessaryly upset her with the news that she had no magical powers, and he didn't know if Janus would show any either. Diane in fact didn't take the news that she was a squib too well, being more irritable and quiet for a time, but she'd eventually get over it and go back to her usual lively self. As for Janus, as soon as Mr. Lumley had finished telling him that he'd go to Hogwarts School when he'd be 11, his mother stated that he wasn't allowed to practice with magic until then. His father reinforced that ban by saying that it was the Law and he'd just have to wait, nothing could be done about it. A lie, but Janus didn't know any better at the time. So the next four years crawled slowly by, with his father sharing next to nothing about the wizarding world and his mother, usually energetic and confident, getting nervous at any mention of magic. He and his father both assumed that she worried about Janus getting hurt by something she didn't understand, but that didn't make the complete absence of magic any less frustrating to Janus. His life was the same as before so he told himself that he should've been as happy as before, but a nagging curiosity about his magical nature and Hogwarts kept him from fully engaging in his everyday adventures like he'd always done.
Janus ended up counting off the days to Hogwarts, his famous patience running thin; when his father finally took him to Diagon Alley on September the 1^1st he was visibly buzzing with excitement, his mug vibrating on the breakfast table.
He was finally ready to go.

RP List:



[Abandoned] Deformed Jellyfish ~ Hogwarts Express ~ PV Padma Pikoulas
[Ongoing] 2019-2020 First Year Entrance ~ Great Lake ~ Open
[Finished] Sorting Ceremony 2019-2020 ~ Great Hall ~ Open
[Finished] The Recipe for Making Friends ~ Common Room ~ PV Nikolas Collins
[Abandoned] A riddle for all ~ Common Room ~ Open
[Ongoing] The Caulfield Mindset ~ Common Room ~ Open
[Ongoing] Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw Dodgeball ~ Great Lake ~ Moderated
[Finished] lost in the woods and alone in the world too ~ Library ~ PV Asteria Kurokawa
[Ongoing] Quaquaquaqua with White Beard ~ Potions ~ PV Asteria Kurokawa
[Ongoing] Spectator: Gryffindor V Ravenclaw ~ Quidditch Pitch ~ Open

Relantionships:

Family

Rufus Lumley ▪ father, wizard ▪ unambitious, open-minded, doesn't do more than necessary, works as a muggle teacher at a primary school in Durham, didn't answer most of Janus' questions about wizards because his wife feared Janus would grow more impatient and start to try magic at home - putting himself in danger (what he told Janus was that discovering the magical world on his own would be part of the fun)
Past

Reducio

Mr. Lumley knew everything and more about his pureblood lineage. The only person in his family who didn't place any importance on it was his crazy aunt Tilla, who claimed to be a Seer, but as for the rest of them, they'd stuffed his ears with family trees since he was just a child. Going to Hogwarts had been a welcome escape from his overbearing family. Rufus' father had died in a risky duel when he was only two, but besides that he'd been a pretty average and content child. While at Hogwarts he had a quiet few years in Hufflepuff, save for that whole Chamber of Secrets deal in his Sixth year. He then graduated with a decent academic average but he felt a pull towards experiencing the muggle life, something he could have never tried before. He didn't have any other ideas for his future anyway and he'd never been the ambitious sort, always choosing to go where his fate would lead him. He heard news of Voldemort's second rise from his new muggle accomodation in Durham, and managed to keep a low profile until the dark wizard's definitive fall. His mother died of illness shortly after but she had cut ties with him long before that, when he'd gone to live as a muggle.

Olivia Lumley (née Cobb) ▪ mother, muggle(?) ▪ stubborn, loving, more energetic than her husband, works at the local chemist's, magic makes her very nervous so she made Janus live a completely muggle existence while he was at home
Past

Reducio

Unknown to Janus, to his father and most importantly to his mother, Mrs. Lumley's parents had both been wizardkind. They had chosen to take a side during the First Wizarding War and had tried to protect neighbouring muggles from the Death Eaters. Olivia had been born in '76, in the middle of the war, and had made her parents more cautious but didn't make them stray from their choice. They tried to give her a happy childhood during those tense times, making her play with their magic tricks, but all of that was cut short in the last days of August '81, when Olivia was five. Death Eaters attacked their town targeting muggles, and her parents hid as many as they could in their home. They then told Olivia to hide in the cupboard. When the Death Eaters came to pleasantly question the two wizards, they didn't take long to discover that there were muggles hidden upstairs. Olivia's parents had hurriedly placed an anti-detection charm when hiding them but it wasn't enough to trick the Death Eaters. As soon as one of the dark wizards moved to go upstairs, her father blocked his way and drew his wand. All the while Olivia was peeking at the scene through the cupboard door crack, protected by the shadows and some very heavy spellwork that her parents had placed on the cupboard for that exact reason. She saw the masked man shout, her father shout, green light from a wand, her father fall, her mother scream. Her mother kneeling beside her father and then pointing her wand at the masked men, who were laughing. Another green light and her mother fell as well. Dread kept her silent while the masked men climbed up the steps towards the muggles, then there were shouts from outside and she saw the men climb back down and exit the house in a hurry. The shouts she had heard were Aurors and OotP members arriving at the scene and engaging the Death Eaters. They managed to win that fight, and when they later found her crying beside her dead parents they brought her back with them to the Ministry. Once there, it was briskly decided that being five and having shown no sign of magic yet, and most importantly having suffered a very traumatic event, she was to be Obliviated of any magical event in her life and have her memory modified to having been in a car accident with her parents, when they had died. She was then to be given in adoption to a muggle couple in a safe area, and whenever her magic would surface they would give her the choice to have her memories restored. If she turned out to be a squib, well, not remembering her terrible past would make her life better as a muggle. The Aurors who had found her felt uncomfortable at having to Obliviate her but they complied, and she was given in adoption to a lovely couple that lived in Durham, the Cobbs. These were the people Janus would come to know as "grandparents". They'd been on the adoption list for a while and they were overjoyed at finally being able to adopt a child. They were told Olivia's parents had died in a car crash and that she'd been traumatised by the event, so she didn't remember much. They immediately thought of her as their daughter and raised her to the best they could. Olivia did surpringly turn out to be a squib so her memories weren't restored and she had a satisfyingly normal life. When Rufus Lumley told her that he was a wizard, some days after their engagement, she felt a spike of dread resurface from an unknown place inside her, but she put it down to having just learned that magic was real. Rufus told her that he wanted to live as a muggle, anyway, and she immediately felt relieved. She was also relieved when her daughter didn't show any signs of magic even at eleven, but when Janus magically set a wasp on fire at seven she felt that pang of nervousness come back.
In the last few years before Janus left for Hogwarts she never felt at ease when her husband or son mentioned magic, and her nightmares were bathed in green light.

Diane Lumley ▪ big sister, squib ▪ 5 years older than Janus, loud, extrovert, always up for harassing her brother, felt a bit hurt by the revelation that she was lacking something when Janus' magic surfaced and their father told them that he'd also been a wizard this whole time

At Hogwarts

Nikolas Collins ▪ friendly acquaintance, first year ▪ seems energetic and chatty, easy-going, they met on their first night at Hogwarts in the Common Room and shared introductions and first impressions over Bertie Bott's beans
Asteria Kurokawa ▪ awkward acquaintance, first year ▪ they met when she was crying against a book he needed, seems introverted but managed to pull herself back together

Abilities:



Wand Properties

"Maybe we will have more luck with this one? 28,8 centimetres, chestnut wood and phoenix feather. Whippy, attracted by the naturally lucky wizards. Yes, excellent, it's exactly what you need!"

Chestnut Wood

Reducio

"This is a most curious, multi-faceted wood, which varies greatly in its character depending on the wand core, and takes a great deal of colour from the personality that possesses it. The wand of chestnut is attracted to witches and wizards who are skilled tamers of magical beasts, those who possess great gifts in Herbology, and those who are natural fliers. However, when paired with dragon heartstring, it may find its best match among those who are overfond of luxury and material things, and less scrupulous than they should be about how they are obtained. Conversely, three successive heads of the Wizengamot have possessed chestnut and unicorn wands, for this combination shows a predilection for those concerned with all manner of justice."

Phoenix Feather Core

Reducio

"This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike. Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalise, and their allegiance is usually hard won."

Whippy

Reducio

"Wand flexibility or rigidity denotes the degree of adaptability and willingness to change possessed by the wand-and-owner pair – although, again, this factor ought not to be considered separately from the wand wood, core and length, nor of the owner’s life experience and style of magic, all of which will combine to make the wand in question unique."

Fun fact #1

Reducio

Janus' wand has the same components and characteristics as Silvanus Kettleburn's, who was a Care of Magical Creatures professor at Hogwarts until 1993. This doesn't mean the two wizards are identical of course, just that this kind of wand might be attracted to a trait found both in Janus and in Kettleburn. Janus does share Kettleburn's unworried nature (and sometimes carelessness) around what he thinks he knows; Janus isn't reckless out of bravery though. One ought to remember that the wand itself develops in time according to the wizard and their experiences.

Fun fact #2

Reducio

Each Ravenclaw dorm has the name of a different wand wood, and the students are rumoured to pick up the traits of that wood. Janus sleeps in the Redwood Dorm alongside the other First Years; this wood has a reputation for bringing good fortune although, according to official sources, "redwood wands are not themselves lucky, but are strongly attracted to witches and wizards who already possess the admirable ability to fall on their feet, to make the right choice, to snatch advantage from catastrophe." This seems to fit in well with Janus' tendency towards luck and with Ollivander's description of his wand.

Seer

"This is a rare race of people that look no different from the average witch or wizard. While a Seer is considered to be an exceptionally rare race (because this is a recessive gene found in humans with a magical heritage), a Seer cannot be a half-human and also be a part-giant for instance as this rare gene is easily overridden with that of other magical races. Therefore to be a Seer one must be fully human. Moreover, a Seer comes from a magical lineage on both sides as it is a recessive gene; while there might be some muggle lineage in the immediate past there would have been in the very distant history magic on both sides of their family tree (even if unknown to the wizard).
There are no physical manifestations in their youth, but their hair does prematurely turn grey as early as their late teens.* Most of the 'symptoms' are the personal experiences of the the Seer - those flashes of intuition."

Janus, pre-Hogwarts

Reducio

Janus had always felt he was lucky, and most of his muggle mates agreed with him. He often got good grades in tests even if he didn't study much, and that was why he felt lucky, and he managed to find himself in the right place when something went wrong, and that was why others called him lucky. For example, if someone hit a football too hard and it swerved towards him and his friends, you could bet he wouldn't be the one getting hit. If an adult came to them with a livid expression, Janus had often just left or was leaving. He didn't think much of it though; he simply reckoned that because he understood how those situations worked, he obviously knew how they were going to develop. After all anyone could, they were quite predictable; then yeah, he also had luck.
One event he couldn't predict was being told he was a wizard, but it fit into his lucky narrative. Another thing he couldn't have imagined was that he was in fact a Seer, but he didn't know that yet.

First Year

It is rare to come upon a Seer in their youth; this is because Seers are often unaware of their gift during childhood but it does manifest in these early years. It shows up initially as a spark of intuition, they sometimes stop just before disaster would strike or as some would say "they find themselves in the right place at the right time."

OOC

Reducio

Start with 30 stat points (instead of the 35 that normal humans start with.)
Mechanically the ability is represented by a 10% auto-dodge & auto-hit when in combat (anything that requires a dodge, there is a 10% chance that it automatically misses and any of their attacks have a 10% chance of automatically hitting).
This does not allow to metagame information that you have had no access to. It can be likened to Spiderman's spidey sense, where he has an inkling that danger is near and has this sudden desire to move.

*Janus at the end of his Seventh Year

Reducio